Complain about Millennials all you want Gen X, but you raised us

The string of complaints about my generation seems to be never ending. Millennials are the butt of a lot of jokes, but we’re no different than the generations who came before us. Those from the Baby Boomer and Gen X generations have a lot of complaints about the way we do things, from technology to dating, but they often forget that they are the generations who raised us.

The way one generation turns out is entirely dependent on the way the generation before them—or their parents—chooses to raise them. Of course that doesn’t mean that every person is raised the same way or becomes the same kind of person, but you get what I’m saying. The environment I was raised in wasn’t entirely different than the one my mom was raised in, but because of the times we grew up in we don’t always see eye to eye on things. I grew up with a different set of concerns than my parents or grandparents, and I can respect that because of those concerns their view of the world isn’t the same as mine.

Millennials spend too much time on their phones, they’re overly sensitive, too lazy to find work, and entitled—according to the generations before us. The Millennial generation includes anyone born in the early 80’s all the way up to the mid 1990’s or even the early 2000’s, smashing the widely accepted idea that our generation is just a group of whiny kids.

We didn’t ask for participation trophies because we weren’t the MVP, but you complained about them until coaches felt obligated to hand them out. You were worried that our feelings would get hurt all because we didn’t get some plastic trophy and forgot that for us sports were just something fun. You call us too sensitive, but you supposedly raised us to respect other people and taught us that if we didn’t have anything nice to say then we shouldn’t say anything at all. You tell us that we’re addicted to technology, but I worked in childcare and saw kids in second grade with smartphones. Who allowed kids that young to have them? You did.

I went to school with kids who promptly received BMW’s as soon as they passed their driver’s test. There were always kids who seemed to get everything they wanted without showing any sort of gratitude. You say that we’re spoiled, but you’re the ones who spoiled us.

A little elbow grease and determination was the formula for success when you were our age. You didn’t have to go to college to be able to make ends meet after high school. Working full-time was enough to support yourself or even a family, you could buy a house, afford car payments, and put food on the table. Now an unfair amount of pressure is placed on Millennials to go to college, move out of our parent’s homes, make enough money to pay our own bills, and pay back our student debt. If we fail to do these things then we are lazy. The world is not in the same state that it was back then, and that’s why Millennials struggle so much to receive any sort of recognition for doing something right—or at least trying.

Do you think I want to have less than $100 in my bank account most days? Do you think college kids want to live off of Ramen noodles and grilled cheese sandwiches? Do you think we want to be stressed and depressed to the point where we physically feel unable to leave our homes? Sometimes no matter how hard we work, we can’t change our circumstances—but believe me, we want to.

We are adults and we deserve to be treated as such. We should be allowed to voice our frustrations without being told to suck it up. Don’t tell me you never complained when times were tough or you felt utterly discouraged. We don’t need anyone telling us that we aren’t doing enough, because chances are that we already feel like we’re not working hard enough when we’re trying our hardest to be successful.

There are a lot of things I don’t like about my own generation, but can we please collectively agree to stop using the word “Millennial” as an insult? My age doesn’t automatically assign to me all of the characteristics you dislike about some people my age. So Gen X, remember next time you want to complain about my generation that you raised us, and that means that you are partially responsible for how we turned out.